City takes first step to water meters for all

Thousands of Chicago homeowners happily watered their lawns without giving it a second thought during the bone-dry months of last summer even as the yards of their suburban brethren turned brown.

But the handle on the free-flowing spigot is about to tighten.

The Daley administration plans to purchase an automated meter-reading system that officials said Thursday is a first step toward installing water meters citywide to reduce waste.

Currently, 160,000 properties in the city are metered. But the owners of about 350,000 homes and small apartment buildings are able to let the water flow unencumbered by worries about how much it will cost. Unmetered, they get flat-rate bills no matter how much water they use.

Some homeowners are expected to be less than ecstatic about the impending change, first telegraphed by Mayor Richard Daley three years ago.

But one happy person on Thursday was Cameron Davis, executive director of the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

The city's system "is long overdue for change," Davis said. "I think it is important for people to know we send about 2 billion gallons of Lake Michigan water away from the lake every day. Everything we can do to know what we are using so that we can conserve Lake Michigan is smart."

Proposals from companies that manufacture automated meter-reading systems are due March 17.

"We are saying, `We have this many meters; you tell us the best means to get us to an intelligent system,'" said city Water Management Commissioner Brian Murphy.

Under one type of technology on the market, meters can be read by a handheld device in a vehicle that drives down the street, Murphy said. Under another approach featuring a fixed network similar to the type used for cell phones, antennas installed throughout the city would collect data from meters, he said.

Murphy could not estimate the cost of the new system, though he said eliminating the positions of 53 city meter readers would help defray it. The employees, who now read meters on a bimonthly basis, are expected to transfer to vacant positions elsewhere, he said.

Complete phase-in of the automated system is expected to take three years.

"Once we get this project under way, we will begin development of a plan for universal metering," Murphy said.

He could not estimate the cost of that installation, but new meters are not expected to come cheap.

A 1994 study estimated the citywide price of installation at up to $347 million.

The impetus for the change comes from Daley, an avowed environmentalist who has helped lead a Great Lakes conservation effort. Daley first tipped his hand on the plan for metering when he announced a new "water agenda" in 2003.

"I think it makes it difficult for Chicago to say we should protect the Great Lakes when we don't have metering in place," Davis said. "It really makes it hard to lead by example."

Officials in states surrounding the Great Lakes and Canada long have complained about the mostly meter-less state of Chicago at a time when property owners in virtually all big American cities and virtually all Chicago suburbs pay for exactly what they use.

Chicago for years has required meters on industrial, commercial and bigger residential buildings. Under a 1978 agreement between the state and the city, the devices also have been required on all newly built or substantially rehabilitated homes. But older houses and small apartment buildings are billed based on a formula that takes into account factors such as the size of the building, the width of the lot and the number of outside hose spigots.

Murphy acknowledged that some owners who get meters will end up paying more than they do now. But he contended that "a majority" would see bills go down because of "the little changes they can make day to day."

That would include running dishwashers and washing machines only with full loads, fixing leaky toilets and faucets, and being smarter with the hose.

Lawns should be watered in the early morning hours when evaporation is at its lowest, Murphy said.